Volkswagen argued for easing new EU tests on emissions

LONDON — Volkswagen successfully lobbied to remove two key parts of Europe’s forthcoming auto emissions tests, an internal email shows, including a provision to measure the significant pollution released when an engine is started but hasn’t yet warmed up.

The automaker also argued against requiring special, high-speed tests for cars designed to be driven fast. Volkswagen, which owns the Porsche, Lamborghini and Audi brands, is a leading producer of fast cars. “Such topics must be deleted,” a Volkswagen executive wrote in an email last year to the European Commission, the European Union’s executive branch, referring to the two provisions.

The new tests, which still face a battle in the European Parliament, will be the first in Europe to require screening car pollution outside of a laboratory and in road tests meant to more closely reflect real driving. The email was included among documents made public by the commission after a request by Corporate Europe Observatory, a Brussels-based advocacy group.

The name of the Volkswagen executive who lobbied for the real-world tests was redacted by the European Commission. The email was written by the VW official on behalf of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, a trade group. Cara McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the group, could not say whether other automakers had weighed in on the same topics.

Regulations set in Europe have far-flung resonance because European emissions standards are followed by many countries outside of Europe, including India and Argentina. The email reflects the strong hand that carmakers have long had in negotiating over Europe’s auto regulations.

As world leaders and activists gathered in Paris this week for the United Nations climate-change conference, the VW scandal and the European Union’s difficulty in agreeing to effective auto emissions tests serve as sobering reminders that goals or agreements can be hard to enforce in practice.